Forgotten Truths (The Forgotten Truths Series) (17 page)

“And if Captain Brown is your real father?”

“Then it’s obvious because I was never supposed to be part of his life. If he isn’t my father, then he’s most likely never had a female living with him. And then I appear and for some reason, he decides to take me with him. And then it comes down to why did he take me and why is our relationship so strained now?”

I started to explain more about what I had been thinking earlier where he’d intended to take me back but never had. And the reason he was so protective of me was because he didn’t want me getting hurt because he still had intended me to go back.

“But why wouldn’t he have told me by now? Is it because he’s been hoping that I’ll remember and go back myself? Or is it because he hasn’t been ready to let me go? I’ve tried to run away numerous times, but he’s always found me and taken me back. I just don’t know what to think about it anymore.”

“Maybe it would help to sleep on it. You’ll get nowhere if your mind keeps going in circles and you’ll have a fresh
start in the morning.” He moved his hand down to my waist again as he adjusted himself. He slid a little down the tree so he was more comfortable.

I
moved down with him and took a moment to respond. “I’m not sure I’ll sleep.”

“Go ahead. I’ll keep watch tonight.”

“I’m not worried about those men finding us.”

“I know. But at least that’s one thing you won’t lose sleep over.”

I lifted my head to look at him. He flashed a grin at me. He leaned forward and gently pressed his lips to my forehead. “I love you.”

I still didn’t know what to say to him when he said that to me, so I just leaned more into him and I nestled my head u
nder his chin. He moaned deeply. Once again he adjusted his position so that he could put both of his arms around me and place his head on mine. I’d never been in this position before with a man with his shirt off. I was used to men without their shirts from the ship, and Mark had sometimes attempted to put his arm around me while his was off, but this was completely different. His skin was warm and as he started to hum again, I closed my eyes.

It suddenly occurred to me that if we were hiding from people, my screaming in the middle of the night would get some attention.

I opened my eyes “Um... What am I going to do about my dreams?”

“What about them?” His voice was soft and deep
as it rumbled underneath my ear. It  distracted me and I couldn’t remember what I had been thinking about for a moment.

“I can’t keep from screaming.”

He sighed. It sounded like he hadn’t thought about it. “I’ll wake you up before you start screaming.”

“How are you going to know that?”

“You shuffle around and groan a lot right before you scream.”

“But who says I do the same things in these dreams.”

“I’ll just judge the best way I can. Now try to get some sleep and let me worry about things for you.”

Chapter IX

When I woke, my arms were still around James and his hadn’t moved either. I lifted my hand off his chest so I could cover my mouth as I yawned.

“Good morning, Beautiful.” James leaned his head toward me
and pressed his lips to my ear.

“How’d you keep me from screaming?”

“You didn’t scream.”

I turned toward him. “I didn’t?”

“No. Once you fell asleep, you didn’t make a sound. Sometimes you hugged me a little tighter, but other than that, you did nothing. Did you have that same nightmare?”

I opened my mouth about to say yes when I realized I hadn’t. I didn’t remember dreaming at all. “I guess not.”

“It must be nice after having several nightmares for over a week and a half straight.” He leaned his head back against the tree. He sounded exhausted.

“You really didn’t sleep last night, did you?”

“I told you I wouldn’t.”

“Sleep now. I’m up, and you need rest.”

He sighed. “I’m fine.”

“You are not. Sleep. I have two eyes. I can look around.”

“I know you can, but I’m supposed to protect you.”

I snorted. As if I couldn’t defend us by myself.

He noticed. He tilted his head so he could look me in the eye. “I know you’re very well capable of taking care of yourself. But we’re a team now.”

“It doesn’t matter. You still can’t protect me very well if you’re falling over with exhaustion.” I shifted so that my back was
against his chest. He kept his arms around me and moved his head to my shoulder. It didn’t seem like it would be comfortable, but after a few minutes went by his breathing became deeper and his hold around me relaxed slightly.

He stayed asleep for several hours.
While he slept, I tried to think through my thoughts again, but came up with the same ones as before so I was just as confused. I didn’t have anything to prove to me that any of it was true. Everything fit either way. I needed to know, and I needed to know soon. I just hoped we’d be able to get to town soon so I could find Mark and have him lead me to my father.

James’ arms tightened around me. He kissed the side of my neck.  “Hey. Are you ready to get going again?”

“Get going?” I looked at him.

“We need to keep moving.”

“What happened to staying in one spot?”

“Well, I thought about it a little more, and it’s probably best that we head to another town.
It will take a few days, but no one there is looking for us.”

“What about Captain Brown and Will?” I shifted my body so I could face him.

“One of them will probably figure out that’s where we went. And if not, then we’ll get word to them somehow. It’s a much safer plan than staying out here and waiting for someone to find us.” He stretched as he stood, and then he held his hand down to me. I placed my hand in his, and he gently pulled me to my feet.

“Are we going to have to run today?”

He looked down at my feet. “It probably isn’t a good idea if your feet are cut up as bad as they are. Do they hurt?”

I shook my head. “I don’t have much feeling in my feet anyway.”

“All right then. Let’s get moving while we have daylight left.”

I followed him for a while in silence. For all I knew, we could have been going in circles. I was pretty good at knowing which direction I was facing, but the trees were so high here that I couldn’t see where the sun was. I didn’t walk next to him, wanting some more time to myself, not that it helped my thinking pr
ocess. Nothing would until I had some answers, and that required a chat with Shawn.

After a couple of hours, James slowed his pace. I caught up to h
im. I assumed he wanted to talk, but when he didn’t, I took his hand. He looked down and then brought his gaze back up to my face.

“Are you okay?” h
e asked quietly.

“How much further are we going today?”

“I want to try to get in another mile or so before it gets dark.” He brought his attention to where he intended us to go. There was no path, so we were stepping over fallen trees and roots.

“Do we need to go faster?” I actually felt like running, if not to get rid of some of the anxiety I had been feeling lately.

“Do you want to? I’m fine with a walk, but if you’d rather, we can run for a little bit.” He turned back to me. “It’s up to you.”

“Let’s see if we can make it a little further. I don’t like feeling like I need to look over my shoulder every couple of minutes.”

He squeezed my hand. “I know the feeling.”

We started to run but continued to hold.
It felt good to run. It had been quite a while since the last time I’d been able to run freely for any length of time. It felt good to burn the energy, and I knew I’d sleep tonight, hopefully without the dreams like before. It was becoming too dark to see, and I knew we would stop soon, but I didn’t want to. I wanted to go as far as my legs could carry me. But after a few more minutes passed, James slowed down. When we stopped, he leaned over and put his hands on his knees. I leaned back against a tree but kept my breaths deep and even. I wasn’t exhausted at all.

“You like to run, don’t you?” James lifted his head to see me.

“I don’t get to much. We rarely dock, and nobody lets me get too far from the ship.”

He nodded. “I never would have guessed. It seems like you were meant for it.”

I gave him a curious look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re just a fast runner. It’s almost like you were meant to be able to run away.” He shook his head. “I don’t know what I meant.”

I sat down on a fallen tree. He came over to sit as well and put his arm around me. I leaned my head on his shoulder. I was suddenly hit with exhaustion.

“Hey, if you’re going to sleep, can we move to the ground so that I can get comfortable since I’ll be staying up all night?”

“Go to sleep. We’ll be fine.” I found myself sliding off the log to the ground.

“That’s not a good idea. Since we haven’t been found yet, they’re going to strengthen their efforts.”

“Is that so?” I nestled closer, and wrapped my arms around him. If this is what made it so I didn’t have nightmares, I was going to continue to do it.

“Yes, I do believe so.” I could tell he was trying to stay serious, but there was a smile in his voice. His arms tightened around me. “Go to sleep. I’ll make sure you don’t scream in your sleep tonight. We’ll be fine.”

~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~

The next day
, we kept to our “trail” which involved a lot more fallen trees and other things to trip me. We couldn’t go as fast with the heavy overgrowth, and James kept closer to me as he became more paranoid. It still felt like we were being followed, which I guess we were, but it felt more like eyes were on us all the time. This didn’t keep him from holding me while I slept and not leaving my side though. He didn’t get more protective of me, but didn’t lack in it either. We seemed to stay by the creek, which was turning into a small river. Just hearing the water seemed to keep my nerves under control.

Two
mornings after we had left the house, I was staring up at the trees while James slept next to me. Some leaves were rustling behind me, but I wasn’t paying attention since a light wind had been blowing for a while. I was thirsty, but I knew if I moved the few feet away to get a drink and didn’t wake him, and then he did wake to find me missing that he’d start to panic. I didn’t want to put him through that since he needed to get more sleep than he was actually allowing himself.

I felt I really owed him something though, to at least get up and get berries or something to eat so he didn’t have to look for them.
He had told me the day before which ones were safe to eat. I looked around the area and finally spotted some a little ways ahead of me. But as with wanting to get water, I knew I couldn’t move. I was leaning my back against his chest with his arms around my stomach so he would very easily notice if I got up and moved.

I leaned my
head back against his shoulder and gave up on escaping his hold. It was very comforting still, but I didn’t like just sitting around. This was driving me crazy.

He tightened his arms around me. It was a little uncomfortable, and
when he didn’t relax, I tried to shift my body. He tightened his arms again. I looked at his face to see if he was awake. His eyes were closed and his breathing was still deep. I kept my eyes on his as I moved so that I was sitting on his lap, the only place I didn’t think his hold would hurt as badly. He squeezed me again. His arms held me firmly against his bare chest. It was very awkward to be sitting how I was, and though I hated to wake him, I knew I had to..

“James?” I pushed on his arms around me. When he didn’t respond, I said his name louder. “James!”

He opened his eyes a little. “What?”

“You’re hurting me.”

He woke up a little more. “I’m what?”

I pushed on his arms again but he didn’t get the hint. “You’re hurting me.”

“Sorry, Love.” He loosened his hold, but not enough for me to slide off his lap. Instead, he shifted his legs apart and I slipped down between them. “Is that better?”

I turned a little and
leaned my head against his shoulder. “I guess.”

“Did I really hurt you?”

I lifted my head to look at him. “No. I’m fine.”

He slowly nodded but
caught sight of my scar again. He met my gaze and then slowly brought his hand up to my shoulder. I closed my eyes as he gently touched my shoulder. But when his finger touched the scar, I grabbed his wrist.

“Don’t.” I opened my eyes to look
directly into his. He had to know that I was serious.

“Why?”

“I don’t want you touching it.”

He pulled his arm back. “I’m sorry.”

I looked down. “Don’t be. Just don’t touch it.”

He
held me quietly. My stomach growled at some point which brought him back to the present. He smiled and looked at me.

“Hungry?”

“Well I had wanted to get some berries for you, but I couldn’t get out of your hold.” I gave him a pointed look.

“I said I was sorry.” He released me.

“Would you
stop
apologizing already? You do it all the time, even for things you have no control over.” I started to push away from him so that I could get up when he suddenly pulled me back into his chest.

“
I will most likely always apologize to you. I know that I may have nothing to be sorry for, but someone does. It’s an automatic response and habit of mine.”

“Well, it’s really annoying.”

His hand slid up to the back of my neck and he turned my face toward him. He studied my expression for a moment before he said, “Get used to it.”

I
rolled my eyes and sighed. “I guess I’ll have to, won’t I?”

The corner of his mouth twitched, but he fought back the smile. “Yes.”

We stood up awkwardly and went over to the berries I had seen earlier. He kept his hands on my stomach as I picked the berries. After I’d give him one, he’d kiss my neck. I was really starting to like his kisses. They were starting to mean something to me, something I wasn’t sure I could live without. It reassured me that I had someone who understood me and wasn’t going to push me into anything I wasn’t sure about. It assured me that someone cared for me more than anything else, and I liked that feeling.

We traveled a little more
the rest of the day. James told me we were getting closer to the town, but he wasn’t used to traveling this way so he wasn’t entirely sure how long it would take. It seemed to me that it would be longer than the few days he had said earlier, but we were also sticking close to the river which wound its way around the forest so it wasn’t a straight trip. 

The following morning
, I was again waiting for James to wake. I sat close to him, but not in his arms. I was just watching him. His face looked different when he was asleep. It was more relaxed, which I didn’t know was possible. He was a light sleeper I knew, but he looked more at peace as if he was in a deep sleep. The corners of his mouth were turned up slightly as if he were enjoying his dream. It was a gentle smile, and after staring at it, I decided I wished I could see it more often. I always enjoyed his smiles, they always made me feel like I mattered, or whatever it was he was talking about mattered, but this one was different. It was as if whatever he was dreaming about was the most important thing in his life. I wanted to know what he was dreaming about and why he smiled like that.

His eye
lids fluttered and then he opened them. When he saw me staring, he smiled even wider. His hand gently cupped my face, and he stroked his thumb across my cheek. “Now that’s something I’d never get tired of.”